The rest is silence
by Dustland-Fairytales
Summary: Sasuke's thoughts after Itachi's death. One-Shot.


**Title: **The rest is silence

**Summary:** A short one-shot about Sasuke's thoughts after Itachi's death.

**Disclaimer:** I do not, have never, and never will, own Naruto.

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**The rest is silence**

"_Forgive me, Sasuke…it ends with this."_

Sasuke could only stare in shock as the corners of Itachi's mouth actually curled into a gentle and genuine smile as he poked his younger brother's forehead and finally fell to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on Sasuke's face.

It was a smile Sasuke hadn't seen in ages, not since before the night of the massacre so many years ago. It was that kind of smile that Itachi would give him, and only him, to reassure him, to tell him he'd always be there for his younger brother. A smile that, as he had claimed earlier, had always been a fake.

So why did Itachi smile at him like that now?

Despite everything, Sasuke felt all his anger and resentment, all his fear and hate, crumble the moment he saw Itachi's smile.

He hated himself for that.

It was just too easy to remember all the happy moments they had spent when seeing this smile. It was too easy to pretend none of this had ever happened, and Itachi was still the affectionate, caring older brother he had loved so much.

Memories washed over him, and endless flow of pictures and scenes displaying before his eyes:

Itachi, holding his arms out to him as Sasuke took his very first steps, always ready to catch him in case he'd fall down again. Itachi, chasing after him, because Sasuke had stolen his Dango in order to finally make his brother respond to his endless pleading to play tag with him. Itachi, ducking away to avoid the smack Shisui had aimed at him, and _of course_ succeeding, because he was the Uchiha prodigy, and even though Shisui was good, there was just no way in hell he could ever land a blow on his younger cousin. Itachi, trying to teach him Shogi and never losing his patience, even though Sasuke already failed miserably when it came to setting up the pieces in the correct order. Itachi in the kitchen, trying to make Onigiri and at the same time keeping his little brother from almost blowing up the entire house. Itachi, showing him how to use shuriken, making sure he didn't dismember himself in the process.

And always smiling, smiling, smiling.

Damn it. Mass-murderers, _monsters_ like Itachi shouldn't be allowed to smile like that.

He had expected to feel happy and relieved after Itachi's death. Some kind of smug and cruel satisfaction even. Eagerness to find and kill Uchiha Madara, the other shinobi who had taken part in the Uchiha massacre.

He hadn't expected to feel…nothing. Nothing at all. His entire body felt numb, and he didn't even notice the pain anymore. He knew he should be tired, exhausted, but there was nothing left. Even his mind was numb and emotionless.

Sasuke glanced down at his brother.

"_I guess Kakashi was right after all"_, he mused. Revenge hadn't made him feel better. It hadn't been the solution to all his problems. Still, he knew it had been the only thing he could have done.

And yet…looking at Itachi made him realize his life would never be the same again. He had just lost the person closest to him, the person he had always loved the most, and this left a hole inside of him that no one, not even his friends, would ever be able to fill.

Not only Itachi had died today. Sasuke had died, too. There was nothing else to live for. Nothing to strive for.

The rest, whatever was yet to come, was darkness.

The rest was just utter silence.

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**A/N.:** Wow. It's done. I'm not really sure whether that actually came out the way I wanted it to...the idea for this OS just crept into my head last night and made itself comfortable there, making sure I couldn't get any sleep. I guess I should've just gotten up and written it down then, because this honestly took me hours to write today...I just couldn't remember everything I wanted to write, so it's actually a lot shorter now than it was supposed to be...*sigh*

so, I put a lot of effort into this and I would be very very very very happy if you reviewed and told me what you think of it *grin* I shall give a cookie to everyone who does!

Dustland-Fairytales


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